Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2018 number 5

The effect of conditions of mechanochemical activation and stoichiometric composition on generating products of mechanochemical reduction of β-germanium dioxide with magnesium was investigated by X-ray phase analysis. It was demonstrated that differently composed mechanochemical composites might be formed at certain steps during mechanical activation of germanium dioxide. They were comprised of germanium, magnesium oxide, germanium oxide, magnesium, and the GeMg₂ intermetallic compound. The process of mechanochemical reduction of germanium dioxide with magnesium comes to an end by 4 min of activation to form Ge/MgO composite. Conditions of separation of germanium powder from magnesium oxide in mechanochemical Ge/MgO composites were determined. As demonstrated by electron microscopic analysis, highly dispersed germanium powders consist of 50–100 nm primary particles similarly-shaped to spherical ones. The species are aggregated into secondary particles in 1 to 10 µm size range. The magnesium content in highly dispersed germanium powders is less than 2 %.